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prototype

prototype

github.com/borkwebDevelopment851 installsUpdated 2d ago
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About prototype

A skill for building disposable prototypes that answer a specific product or engineering question. It selects a terminal logic model or switchable UI variations, and emphasizes visible state, simple startup, and removing or absorbing the prototype afterward.

Key features

  1. 01Selects logic or UI prototype based on the question
  2. 02Builds interactive terminal state models
  3. 03Creates switchable UI variations on one route
  4. 04Keeps state in memory by default
  5. 05Records the finding and removes or absorbs the prototype

Use cases

  1. 01Explore hard-to-reason-about state transitions
  2. 02Compare distinct UI directions on a page
  3. 03Test an interaction without adding persistence
  4. 04Capture a validated decision before deleting scaffolding

Install

Copy the command and run it in a terminal.

$npx skills add https://github.com/borkweb/skills --skill prototype

After installing, type/prototypein Claude Code to confirm it loaded.

Bundled filesLOGIC.mdUI.md

Details

From the project README

Prototype

A prototype is throwaway code that answers a question. The question decides the shape.

Pick a branch

Identify which question is being answered — from the user's prompt, the surrounding code, or by asking if the user is around:

  • "Does this logic / state model feel right?" → LOGIC.md. Build a tiny interactive terminal app that pushes the state machine through cases that are hard to reason about on paper.
  • "What should this look like?" → UI.md. Generate several radically different UI variations on a single route, switchable via a URL search param and a floating bottom bar.

The two branches produce very different artifacts — getting this wrong wastes the whole prototype. If the question is genuinely ambiguous and the user isn't reachable, default to whichever branch better matches the surrounding code (a backend module → logic; a page or component → UI) and state the assumption at the top of the prototype.

Rules that apply to both

  1. Throwaway from day one, and clearly marked as such. Locate the prototype code close to where it will actually be used (next to the module or page it's prototyping for) so context is obvious — but name it so a casual reader can see it's a prototype, not production. For throwaway UI routes, obey whatever routing convention the project already uses; don't invent a new top-level structure.
  2. One command to run. Whatever the project's existing task runner supports — pnpm <name>, python <path>, bun <path>, etc. The user must be able to start it without thinking.
  3. No persistence by default. State lives in memory. Persistence is the thing the prototype is checking, not something it should depend on. If the question explicitly involves a database, hit a scratch DB or a local file with a clear "PROTOTYPE — wipe me" name.
  4. Skip the polish. Skip test infrastructure and polish for disposable scaffolding; still check the question the prototype is meant to answer. Logic promoted into production needs the project’s normal tests and error handling. The point is to learn something fast and then delete it.
  5. Surface the state. After every action (logic) or on every variant switch (UI), print or render the full relevant state so the user can see what changed.
  6. Delete or absorb when done. After the user has reviewed the result, agree whether to delete it or fold the validated decision into real code — don't leave it rotting in the repo.

When done

The answer is the only thing worth keeping from a prototype. Capture it somewhere durable (commit message, ADR, issue, or a NOTES.md next to the prototype) along with the question it was answering. If the user is around, that capture is a quick conversation; if not, leave the placeholder so they (or you, on the next pass) can fill in the verdict before deleting the prototype.

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